Please don't sell only on steam. You were sort-of able to make expansions work on your site, so even the "pay separately for each route" method wouldn't be too bad. I know I typically only finish one or two routes anyway - even if I like additional characters, it's an effort to replay a long game for a third time. I also like the base game, or part of the game free idea as how would you know which route to buy if you didn't know the characters? Many times the ones that look interesting end up not being so, and vice versa.

Also, long word counts aren't always better. Even if it's an engaging story/characters, reader fatigue does set in after a while. That's why most books have a word limit, even epic fantasy books generally try to stay under 150k. (There are notable exceptions, but they are rare for a reason.)

You say the story is already written, but are all of those scenes actually necessary? A lot of editors force their authors to cut out a bunch of stuff, to keep the pacing tight, the story together, and the readers engaged. Are all the lines in those scenes necessary or can the filler go? Scenes and flashbacks that are disconnected from the main story are good candidates, sometimes we don't need a full sob story when a line or two summary can do.

Addendum:
I don't know how many romances you're talking about, but you could also consider bundling pairs together based on type. E.g. yuri, MF, FM, yaoi - so only four serial codes.

Also, long word counts aren't always better. Even if it's an engaging story/characters, reader fatigue does set in after a while. That's why most books have a word limit, even epic fantasy books generally try to stay under 150k. (There are notable exceptions, but they are rare for a reason.)

I know and it wasn't something I planned at all. When I said that I'm going to finish the current games in the work and then change completely strategy, I mean it I started too many games and put too much trust/responsabilities into external people (well, writers mostly) and the results aren't always good.

You say the story is already written, but are all of those scenes actually necessary? A lot of editors force their authors to cut out a bunch of stuff, to keep the pacing tight, the story together, and the readers engaged. Are all the lines in those scenes necessary or can the filler go? Scenes and flashbacks that are disconnected from the main story are good candidates, sometimes we don't need a full sob story when a line or two summary can do.

That could be a solution, however since I've already spent a lot of time/money on this game I wouldn't want to spend EVEN more money I basically reached the limit haha
And no, it's not UL, though probably that game will be not small either. But not like this one

As a fun of bigger games, longer stories I think this is a pretty good thing, and I don't see a problem with selling a whole game at your site for higher price and selling routes separately on steam. For people complaining about selling routes separately, well from what I read it seems to me like they are confusing your system with a very different system, I mean you had already done this with some games where you sold Yuri/Otome separately, the only difference is that here you would be selling every route separately. And I don't think people have complained on that, I think it is more about representation and the way you put it, since the way you said it base game for free people are confusing it with those games that you have to be online to play and get a game for free but have to pay for everything in game to unlock. In that regard it might even be better to, at least on steam just release every route as a separate stand alone game/version. While giving a common route for free as a form of demo would be better for buyers it would lead to many people misunderstanding the system and could be turned off if they relate it to that other system, especially when you call it a base game (I mean even here in this post people are already misunderstanding it).

As a fun of bigger games, longer stories I think this is a pretty good thing, and I don't see a problem with selling a whole game at your site for higher price and selling routes separately on steam. For people complaining about selling routes separately, well from what I read it seems to me like they are confusing your system with a very different system, I mean you had already done this with some games where you sold Yuri/Otome separately, the only difference is that here you would be selling every route separately. And I don't think people have complained on that, I think it is more about representation and the way you put it, since the way you said it base game for free people are confusing it with those games that you have to be online to play and get a game for free but have to pay for everything in game to unlock. In that regard it might even be better to, at least on steam just release every route as a separate stand alone game/version. While giving a common route for free as a form of demo would be better for buyers it would lead to many people misunderstanding the system and could be turned off if they relate it to that other system, especially when you call it a base game (I mean even here in this post people are already misunderstanding it).

That's kind of like how the East Tower series works. The customer can pay for yuri/otome routes separately and I certainly don't have an issue with that. If they buy a route separately, it is a complete story in itself.

I know and in future it's never going to happen again, since I'm probably going back writing the games myself and using an editor, or use trusted people only who know how long a game should be, etc. But since in this case the "damage is done" already, I'm trying to find a solution

Yeah, I understand how it can be when it comes to writing and not being able to control how much to write. That goes with the flow of ideas. lol But yeah, I like the idea of using an editor if you decide to go back to writing. ^^

Now for a genuine suggestion. Just sell the entire game here on your website for a higher price (the price that you want), and offer the ability to redeem a Steam key for the "FULL" set. If people want cheaper or to purchase selective routes only, then they have to buy on Steam, which you can sell by the usual DLC format. But I advise you to charge for the base game (on Steam) (even if it's just $1.00, or to spread out the cost with the base game), as free games sometimes causes problems for your Steam library by not showing up properly.

Perhaps for this game, you can time both the Steam and Website release together, so that people just simply choose where they want to buy, and the technical issues solved. People who want to be supportive or just want the full game can buy off your website. If they don't (and want to pick certain routes only, or demo first), then they get it through Steam, no loss.

By free common route does it mean everything in it, so people may go trought the game once for free, I know some that would go trought the common route for free and never buy the route because they would feel like they are paying for game they already finished/"see most of it so not worth the money" and I know others who would feel trick if the base version as nothing.

Can you just make the base version with some route and other as DLC.How many route are they and how many by combo(BxB,GxG).

But I advise you to charge for the base game (on Steam) (even if it's just $1.00, or to spread out the cost with the base game), as free games sometimes causes problems for your Steam library by not showing up properly.

There is some merit to this suggestion but as I understand it once you buy DLC for a free game it shows up just like any other.And since the "free base" would most likely just be the free intro demo most WW games have then I would not advise charging for it unless it actually contained a complete story.

Hmm I could do that though, since even the base story, which could be considered the "alone ending" (even if you're not really alone, just not with one of the main characters) is as big as a normal game. I could do that (and maybe more than $1 lol). I'll need to think about it but might work. I don't want to say what game it is but there are 4 main routes (plus some "smaller ones") in practice
Thanks for the suggestions, got some good ideas